Some logicProsecutors have stayed charges against Steve Deschâtelets, the former Shed Café bouncer accused in the death of Jean-Pierre Lizotte.Last month a jury acquitted Montreal police officer Giovanni Stante (right) of similar charges in the same incident. (Provoking some popular dissatisfaction, right.) Prosecutor Michel Breton said that if one jury thinks Stante did not commit a crime another jury would not think Deschâtelets committed a crime. “It’s a matter of simple logic.”
The stay — the charges will not be dismissed for a year but can only be revived by extraordinary new evidence — means no-one is to blame for the death of Lizotte, a homeless man who died at the hands of Deschâtelets, Stante and Stante’s partner, Sylvain Foquette, according to the criminal justice system.
The Gazette presents Deschâtelets’ story with some sympathy — he has gone into debt to pay for his defense; saw his testimony distorted by police investigators — which is a bit odd, given Deschâtelets was one half of a pair that beat a sick, stoned homeless man to death.
Deschâtelets is not in the clear yet. Both him and Stante are being sued by Lizotte’s brother, Léopolde.